Colley potter

Looking across the chalk pit to the scarp slope of Colley Hill

Colley potter - sounds like a BBC1 Sunday evening family drama, doesn’t it? However, it just describes my afternoon, spent climbing up and down the steep, south-facing scarp slope of Colley Hill, together with a side trip (on foot) to the cricket pitch on Reigate Heath. It was yet another cool and blustery day, although thankfully lacking the heavy rain showers of recent days. The footpaths have become muddy again and insect life was depressed, with barely a butterfly to look at. Botanically it seems as if many species are late in flowering, certainly the carpet of flowers that is to be expected on chalk down land is so far missing. I know it’s boring because I’ve banged on about it frequently this Spring, but the lot of the dry inland birder is, at the moment, one of few birds. My scanning of the skies from the hill top just underlined how little is out there, with very little bird song and very few migrants. Thankfully I can turn my attention to other life forms - both Annual Knawel (below) and Bird's-foot (middle) were on the short sward of Reigate Heath (bottom). The Bird's-foot was profuse.

At the bottom of the slope I came across a single plant of Green Hound's-tongue, a rare flower of limited range in England. Although I have seen colonies of several thousand in Surrey, this is the furthest east that I have seen one in the county.